Building Backlinks to Earning Them The Right Way

Building quality backlinks has been said to be one of the major backbones of search engine optimization and this has been proven to be true. Although optimizing your site for search engines does not fully depend on the number of backlinks you have, it depends on other factors such as the quality of those backlinks, how effective your on-page SEO is, domain age among other things.

Most bloggers believe that it all depends on building backlinks and some even go as far as buying low quality links (which I’m guilty of) but over the years, I’ve come to realize that the most effective backlinks are those your earn, not those low quality ones you build.

how to earn backlinks to blog
 
Does commenting really work?

Well, yeah… to say the least but if you ask me, I’ll tell you I’m not a believer. A great number of those blogs you comment on already told search engines not to follow your links  and your links on those comments probably have no SEO value. I can say that 80% of blogs apply nofollow attribute to comment links and search engines most likely won’t follow those links.
 
What about buying backlinks?

Been there, done that, got hammered by google and lost my precious PR5. You effing heard me right! This blog was once a PR5 site and for a moment, I enjoyed it. It was a good feeling ranking higher than other blogs in your niche… come on, PR5 ain’t no joke but you know what? I lost it and backslided to 3, lost quite a lot of traffic and each PageRank update still got me sitting at PR3.

That is where buying huge, low quality backlinks can get you. I was lucky to bounce back by stopping all link building activity and focusing just on on-page optimization. Of course, I’m not disputing the fact that there are SEO companies who can help you build your backlinks the right way but an average blogger who isn’t earning yet might not be able to afford such services.
 
So, what is the right way to build links?

Sometimes, hiring a reputable SEO company may be the easiest way out but then, some of these so called SEO companies will only build low quality links for you using some automated tool or something. Some… not all, so don’t get me wrong.

Also, posting in forums (if they won’t ban you) can be a good place to start with. Another often neglected source of quality backlinks is social bookmarking and feed readers. I won’t be going into those fully right now but rather going to focus on earning backlinks.
 
How to earn quality backlinks

Now, what works for me as a tech blogger might not work for you if you’re in a different niche, I think we need to get that straight. For quite a while, I’ve been earning lots of natural backlinks and I can boldly say that most of these have great SEO values. However, I still believe you should be able to pick a point or two from my rantings.

1. Write concise, high quality useful posts: You’ve probably heard this a zillion times before but it can’t be overemphasized. These types of posts often earn you backlinks from other blogs who would deem it fit to just link to you in an article as a reference.

2. Write tutorials that actually solve problems: I know this may not apply to everyone but I’ve gotten loads of backlinks using this strategy. I keep getting referrals from web forums I don’t even know where someone would ask a question and one of my links would be dropped as an answer.

3. Be grammatically fluent, eliminate typos: Not all bloggers are fluent with the use of English but you must command the language with ease if you actually want your posts to earn high quality links. Sharpening your writing skills may be a long journey you have to take before getting there.

4. Write honest reviews and testimonials: There was a day I was tracking my backlinks from Google Webmaster Tools and I saw one from Avast.com. Wondering how I got it? It was a review of their antivirus solution for Android written by a guest author, Edi Ifediri of Editiweaks.com, that got me listed on their website. Also, testimonials such as the one I wrote on my domain registrar’s site got me a backlink. See what I mean?

5. Create useful tools and widgets: I’ve already told you that some of these strategies may not apply to you if you’re not a tech blogger. Creating useful tools and widgets with your web programming knowledge can earn you loads of backlinks. Enough said.

Of course, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, there are more ways to earn those high quality links I did forget to mention or not even using at the moment. Again, if I’m going to be honest with you, you must build backlinks before you start earning them. Your on-page SEO must be tight. Doing these alone won’t get you there, it’s only gonna help along the way.

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How To Add Google Plus Followers Gadget To Blogger!

One of the best perks of using Google is, it has products that seamlessly integrate with each other to provide an easy and comprehensive interface to users. For example, Google Drive can be used to attach files with emails quickly. You can +1 posts outside Google+, and share search results on Google Plus. You can even auto-publish your Blogger blog feed to your G+ profile. And that is by no means the end of it. In fact, Google just announced a brand new feature, the Google Plus Followers gadget for blogger blogs! This new Google Plus followers' gadget for blogspot blogs will provide another layer of integration between your Google Plus profile and your Blogger/Blogspot blog.


The Google Plus followers' gadget

Connecting your Google Plus profile with your blog is a great way to enhance your readership by increasing your followers and engaging better with your audience. You can auto-publish your blog posts on your Google Plus stream so as to deliver your content right where your readers want it delivered. Those readers can then recommend your content directly, which can lead to more exposure. This new Google Plus followers widget is another step towards enhancing your readership and boosting your authority.

This widget will tell the world how many people are following you, and will also show them some friendly faces (different for each person). It also has a follow button by default, which lets users follow your Google Plus profile page with a single click. This will help in getting your content across multiple streams, and to reach more readers on a more personal level through your blog.

 Adding this widget to your Blogger blog is really simple. But for it to work, you first have to connect your blogger profile with your Google Plus account. We have detailed the process in a previous post, so make sure you read it first.

    How to automatically share blog updates on Google Plus
Once done, visit the Layout tab on your blogger dashboard, and select "Add a Gadget". You will then be able to see and add this widget easily to your blog.

A note from Google: For those who are using Google Friend Connect followers' widget, they can keep using it, even though Google retired most of Friend Connect services earlier this year. For the time being, it will keep running on Blogger.

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How to Add Google Adsense / HTML Codes to Genesis Without A Plugin

I’ve been using Genesis for quite a while and till just a few hours ago, I didn’t know I could actually do away with the “Post Layout” plugin I’ve been using to add Google ads and other codes to properly format my post pages. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to reduce my number of installed plugins in order to decrease page load time and also CPU usage. From disabling StatPress, Auto Excerpt Everywhere, down to Social Author bio and loads of other plugins, I thought it would be a good idea to use Genesis Hooks and some conditional statements to display ads and other codes instead of relying a third-party plugin I didn’t really need.
Finally, I was able to display the ads and other stuffs just the way I wanted it and right now, I’m using Genesis hooks to display everything you see above and below posts. As a matter of fact, it rather fun digging into the code side of things… got to learn more WordPress conditional statements (I never really did care because I didn’t know how useful they were).
We’re adding these adsense codes or custom PHP / HTML in five positions in this tutorial, it’s up to you to choose where you want your stuffs to appear:
1. The sidebar
2. Below the header
3. Below post title
4. After post content
5. Above posts in archive pages

1. Adding ad codes to the sidebar

Well, I’m not sure I need to explain this but for beginners, you only need to go to Appearance > Widgets. Drag the text widget to your desired location and paste the ad code or custom HTML. That’s it.

2. Adding Google Adsense below the header

I already explained this in a previous post but this is going to be a bit advanced. For someone like me who has a skycrapper on the sidebar and two ad units on post pages, I would like hide that leaderboard below the menu on post pages. This is where conditional statements come in; you only need to add a snippet of code to tell the advert not to appear on single posts and pages.
- Download and install Simple Genesis Hooks
- Go to Genesis > Simple Hooks
- Scroll down till you get to the content section
- In the box labelled genesis_before_content_sidebar_wrap Hook, paste this code:

- Be sure to mark Execute Shortcodes on this hook and Execute PHP on this hook
The part in red is the conditional statement that tells the ad not to appear on single posts and pages. So, this appears on the home page and all archive pages and with this implemented the right way, you won’t be having more than three ad units on each of your site pages. You can even take this further if you’ve done PHP programming or any sort of programming before. It’ll be much more easier for you to manipulate this statements and make your ads appear exactly where you want them to be.

3. Below post title

Now we’re going to add adsense below post title and we’re still gonna use Simple Hooks and conditional statements. The first time I did this, the Google Adsense ads appeared on archive pages and the home page till I added a statement that forced the ads to appear on single posts and pages only.
- Go to Genesis Simple hooks settings page and find genesis_before_post_content Hook
- In the box, paste this code:

- Also, mark Execute Shortcodes on this hook and Execute PHP on this hook
The part in red tells the advert to appear on single posts or pages. It’s gonna be hidden from the homepage and archive pages and I’m sure you don’t wanna show it there, do you?

4. After post content

You’re still using the same code you used right above but you’re only going to add it to a different position, OK?
- Search for genesis_after_post_content Hook
- Paste the code up there in to the box and save.
You’ll probably notice that the post meta (tags and categories) appear above the advert. You can reposition this by marking the box that says Unhook genesis_post_meta() function from this hook?.
- Below the code already in the box, now add this:

5. Above posts in archive pages

Still tweaking the conditional statements, we can make ads appear on archive pages only. This include category pages, tag pages, author pages and so on.
To make ads appear directly above posts on archive pages:
- go to Genesis Simple Hooks settings page and search for genesis_before_loop
- Paste this

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How to Change Default WordPress Search to Google in Genesis

It’s easy to simply add your Google adsense for search code as a widget in your sidebar but when you want to place this search bar in certain positions, you may consider changing WordPress default search engine to Google. I redesigned this blog in the last few days, worked on the CSS, re-arranged the widgets and added some little tweaks here and there. I decided to place Google Adsense for search right there on the primary menu, floating to the right. It required a lot of coding I had no idea how to do and found Bill Erickson’s post on adding content to Genesis navigation. For some strange reasons, the code didn’t work for me when I tried adding Google custom search in that position.

I prefer Google Custom search to WordPress search for two reasons:
1. Your visitors get more relevant results
2. You have the chance to monetize your site even more

By going to Genesis > Theme Settings, you can easily display a search bar right there on your primary menu but only WordPress default search can be added in this position. It was then I thought  there should be a way to change that default search to Google Search so I could show custom search on the navigation menu. I messed around with the files in Genesis framework and eventually found it.

To do this, you must have created a Google custom search in your Adsense account and have the code ready. It would be great if you make the search result open a page in your site. You can create a page on your site (something like www.doncaprio.com/search) where search results would be displayed.
When creating this page, I think you should select the Full Width Content layout option. You may now login to your Adsense account and create your custom search engine, select the option to display search results on a page on your website, using that page you created. Also, You should only select only your website under site to search.

Got the code? Paste the one for your website on the page you created. Be sure you use HTML editor, not visual.
Now, lets change WordPress default search to this Google Adsense search engine.
- Log in to cPanel and locate this file: …/public_html/wp-content/themes/genesis/lib/structure/search.php
- Download this file first in case something goes wrong or if you wish to revert back to WordPress default search later
- Using cPanel file editor, edit this file and scroll down till you see this piece of code:

- Replace this lines completely with your Adsense search code.
Now, anytime you use the search widget in your Genesis theme, it’s gonna be your Google custom search. To display the search engine like you see on my navigation bar:
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard and go to Genesis > Theme Settings. Under Navigation Settings, check the box that says Enable Extras on Right Side and select Search form.
This automatically places an Adsense for unit on your primary menu. Cool, huh?

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